For Better or for Worse
by bubblegum-flavored icecream
Summary: Nyu walks back into Kouta's life after long years, when he is already married to Yuka and has a kid. Nyu couldn't have come at a worse moment; but can Kouta and her make it work? And for what reason did she come back?   Read and review rating might go up!
1. Hello again

_What a beautiful day today…_

The sun was bright and its rays were comfortably warm in the clear, blue sky. A few lazy clouds floated in it, carried by the gentle but fresh breeze. It wasn't a hot day; in fact, it was rather frisky for a summer day. The grass was tender, eye-piercingly green and as soft as feathers under his feet. The sunlight shone through the leaves on the trees, creating a slightly green light. Birds were cheerfully chirping.

_If only she could be here to see what a beautiful day it is…_

Kouta walked faster, but being careful not to slip on the grass. Finally, he saw it from afar. A big, grey rock standing vertically from the ground, a few trees surrounding it protectively. He smiled sadly as the sight reminded him of that day, which seemed so far into the past now…

"_Hey… You seem really upset. Are you okay?"_

Of course she wasn't okay. How could he have been so stupid? He remembered her pink hair which used to be short, her small, white horns sticking out of her head, her dark eyes filled with hate.

Kouta walked up to the huge grey rock and stood in front of it, staring at it until his eyes watered. "Idiot", he told himself. "As if that could make her come back".

He knew it now, nothing could make Nyu or Kaede come back. She was dead and he had killed her, damn it. She was gone. Into nothingness. Forever. It was over. But that didn't stop him from wanting to cry each time he thought of her. The tiny voice of his sane conscience whispered to him in his ear: "There's no need to cry anymore now. There have been enough tears spilled that day at the lighthouse."

Of course there had been enough tears that day. After that event, Kouta's eyes had felt puffy for a week. However a little part of himself had gone with Nyu, and he felt that there could never be enough tears about her death.

Nyu was dead.

But each year, on the last day of the summer festival, he still came to the big grey rock and waited for her to come. She had promised.

"_I will always be waiting"._

"Liar", Kouta chuckled dryly as he knelt in front of the block of stone and smiled, imagining Nyu sweetly smiling back at him.

"Kouta?"

He practically jumped up in surprise as he heard a voice calling him. Then, he looked suspiciously around him, feeling shaky and nervous already. The voice sounded familiar, but there was just no way it could be…

"Kouta?" the voice called again.

"Who's there?" Kouta almost shrieked. "Show yourself!"

He'd meant to sound menacing, but his voice was shaky. His hands were trembling. Maybe it would've worked better if he'd had a gun.

"Show yourself!" he repeated, trying to control his voice.

"I'm here", the voice said a bit louder, as if the person was getting closer.

Kouta suddenly caught a glimpse of something before it disappeared behind a pine tree. It was something that looked like… pink… hair….?

_Wait a minute. Pink hair?_

A pale arm showed itself from behind the pine tree, followed by one shoulder blade, then a neck, a head, a leg. Finally, an entire naked body appeared. Horns stuck out of the person's head, and long, pink hair was hiding her face. She raised a hand to brush the hair out of her eyes and Nyu's face appeared.

Kouta froze.

This can't be. I must be hallucinating. I must have a brain tumor or something…

"Nyu?" a whisper escaped his lips.

The woman nodded, then smiled. The same smile that Kouta had never and could never forget. Tears of joy welled up in her wide, kind eyes.

"I'm back", she said. Her voice sounded sweet in Kouta's ears. "Long time no see, Kouta."


	2. Complications

"Nyu… Is it really you?"

Kouta and Nyu were sitting in the living room of Maple Inn.

Nyu nodded.

"I can't see how I could be anyone else", she laughed. "I remember everything from my life… and my promises."

She suddenly lowered her head, looking a bit ashamed.

"I'm sorry for breaking another promise", she said slowly, as if she was carefully picking her words. "I remember telling you I'd always be waiting for you, each year, at the end of the summer festival, near that huge block of stone. I never came until today."

"It's okay", Kouta said, but his words sounded hollow even to him. "It doesn't matter."

"It does", Nyu disagreed, meeting Kouta's eyes. "Everything in life matters, Kouta. I learned that at the very moment I died, that day back at the lighthouse. Do you remember?"

"How could I forget?" he said, feeling his heart tighten in his chest as he looked back at that day.

Nyu smiled at him. Kouta noticed there were tiny wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, and that the skin on her hands didn't feel as firm as before. In fact, she looked almost as old as him.

"You look older than when you died", Kouta noted, then thought: _"what a strange thing to say out loud". _

"I wanted to look the same age as you", Nyu said, smiling again. "I don't want to make you look like an old pervert trying to seduce a young woman."

"Nyu, I'm confused. How can you be here? I mean…" Kouta paused, then finished rather lamely. "You kind of died."

"I think I know that better than anyone else", Nyu replied. "Don't you want me to be here?"

She sounded hurt.

"Of course I do", Kouta said hastily. "I've dreamed about this countless times, but… you're dead. Aren't you?"

"I am", Nyu said calmly, as if there was nothing strange about the situation.

"So how can you be here?" Kouta repeated, getting more puzzled by the second. "Or are you just my hallucination? Are you real?"

"Oh, I'm real alright", Nyu chuckled.

"How can you be here?"

"You asked that already."

"You haven't answered me."

"The reason I haven't answered you is because I don't know, Kouta!" Nyu suddenly snapped. "Okay? I don't know why I'm talking to you now, and breathing and moving and seeing, when I'm supposed to be dead! I don't know, Kouta! You know, if someone here should feel confused, it's me! I die, I'm nothingness, there is nothing to see, nothing to touch, to smell, to hear, to think, and then suddenly I'm back into the world!"

There was a short silence.

"Sorry", Kouta said sincerely. "I thought you knew."

"It's fine. I'd like to know."

"So… why did you come to see me?" Kouta blurted out.

"Because I… Because you were the first person I'd thought of".

"Oh".

Kouta mentally slapped himself. _Oh?_ That was all that he could say after ten years? He was finally seeing the woman he truly loved after a decade, and all that he could say was "_oh?_" Was he sure there was nothing else to say? Not even, let's say, "_I love you?_" "_I missed you?_" "_Hello again?_"

"So what are we going to do now?" Nyu asked.

"I don't know."

"Has anything… big… happened to you while I was… gone?"

Nyu's voice was shaking a bit, as if she feared the answer. For a moment, Kouta wanted to tell her that nothing had changed since she'd died, but he knew she would never believe that. So he said:

"Yes. I'm married now and I have a kid. A daughter. I named her Nyu, after you."

"Thank you for that", Nyu said, but her forced cheerful tone said that she didn't feel grateful at all.

"It's nothing. I missed you terribly and felt depressed half of the time after you died. So when my little girl was born I decided to call her by your name and raise her to be like you. Because you are… my favorite person in the world and I wanted to think that my daughter too, could be someone's favorite person. And that _they_ could end up together and happy, even though _we_ couldn't. That way, I feel like not everything's lost, you see."

Kouta blushed. He'd said a lot more than he'd meant to. Everything he'd kept bottled down deep inside him had just popped to the surface like cork. Now he felt a searing need to continue, and though he tried to push that need back down, he couldn't.

"I really hope your daughter gets to spend her life happily with her favorite person", Nyu said in a soft yet somehow uneasy voice.

"So", she said, trying to talk in a cheerful voice, "who's your wife?"

"Yuka. She went to visit her mother with Nyu".

"Oh". Nyu's voice started shaking. "That's… wonderful. You guys really make an adorable couple."

"Nyu…" Kouta started, getting a bit closer to her.

"No, really", Nyu said, moving further away from him. "I am… so _happy_ for you. You know, you've got your life in front of you, and that's _so_ great. And I'm just an alive dead person", she said with tears in her eyes.

She stood up and walked to the door. Kouta followed her.

Don't leave.

"I, um, I have to go now", Nyu choked out, trying to hide her tears. "See you later, Kouta!"

"No, Nyu, wait!"

Nyu opened the door and closed it behind her. Kouta suddenly felt as if he had just dry-swallowed a rock. He opened the door.

But Nyu was nowhere to be seen.

"Nyu!" he yelled out.

There was no answer.


End file.
